About a week ago, I posted a few pictures on Twitter of a little project my wife has been working on. My wife knits a little, making scarves and hats from time to time, so I thought I'd put in a little request. I'd seen little knit sackboys from Little Big Planet, so I thought it would be nice to own my own knit Android stuffed robot. My wife went to work, trying to find the perfect pattern for my little DROID and came up with something a few days later. After a few false starts KnitDROID Beta 1 was born. At this point, the wife is still trying to perfect things, but I keep reminding her that it's a Beta. She's debating whether she will make a few to sell since the time needed to make KnitDROID would make the little robot a bit pricey. If you would be interested in purchasing a KnitDROID, let us know in the comments or on Twitter. Be sure to let us know how much you would be willing to pay. Any thoughts and suggestions would be gladly welcomed.

If you’ve been looking for a single source to get all Android related dates, we have the answer! HTCSource has teamed up with AndrodGuys (http://androidguys.com), Androinica, (http://androinica.com) and AndroidAndMe (http://androidandme.com) to put together a comprehensive Android calendar. We’ll be working hard to make sure we have as many Android related dates posted so that you can stay up to date with everything that’s going on. The best part about the calendar is that we’re using Google Calendar which will allow you to add it to your personal calendar if you already have a Google account. The new Android Calendar can be found on the right hand site of HTCSource about half way down the page. There you will find a list of the next 5 upcoming dates. Just click on any of them to view more details and you’ll find the option to add the event to your calendar. We’ve also added the larger full calendar to the top menu on the page. Just click “Android Calendar” and you’ll see the full month. There’s you’ll also have the option of merging the calendar into your own Google Calendar. Simply click the “+ Google Calendar” icon at the bottom of the calendar. If anyone knows of any events that should be listed, feel free to send me the details via twitter: @htcsource or email” nick@htcsource.com (mailto:nick@htcsource.com)

To help appease the masses, I've put together another small wallpaper collection for your Android. Just to be clear, all the wallpapers that we've featured on the site also work for Windows Mobile handsets, it's just that Android users seem to be a lot more interested in wallpapers than their Windows Mobile counterparts. For this collection, I've chosen to go with some softer tones which work wonders on my G1's screen. You might notice that the images are larger than the ones I've shared in the past. I'm simply trying to future proof the collection so that they can be used by never phone with higher resolution screens. Enjoy!

For the past few quarters HTC has been struggling to get its profits up. HTC has been its handset sales numbers go up, but strong competition in the marketplace has caused the average price of Smartphone’s to decline dramatically. The Smartphone sale figures for Q3 of 2009 are in and it looks like things could be a little better than they expected. According to the sale figures, HTC increased their sales in Q3 of 2009 60% over the same time frame in 2008, giving them the largest growth rate in the Smartphone market. HTC’s growth rate even exceeded Apple (49%) and RIM (47%). Overall, the Smartphone market grew 12% in the third quarter.

We all know that HTC and Android are a perfect combination, but I'm not sure that any of us ever expected HTC could capture more mind share than one of the worlds largest wireless communications companies. According to Google Trends, HTC now has a higher search volume index than Motorola. The number really only indicate that more people are searching for HTC on Google than they are for Motorola. HTC's slight advantage over Motorola could fade away soon if Motorola's new Android Droid and Cliq turn into successes. Regardless it's nice to see our little HTC is finally up there playing with the big boys. Source: AndroidRelease (http://androidrelease.com/2009/11/04/motorola-betting-on-android-to-turn-downward-trends-upward/)

Google has just announced that Android 2.0 would include turn-by-turn directions within Google Maps. Over the past week or so, there has been a lot of speculation around the blogosphere which indicated that Google might be leaning in this directly. Honestly, a lot of people were a bit disappointed when Android launched last year without this feature. Even though they might be a little late to the party, Google’s navigation features are sure to impress. The new Google Maps will incorporate Street View and their satellite imagery into the navigation in order to give users the best experience possible. Rather than just seeing where your next turn is, you can simply double tap it and you will see what the exit looks like. As always, Google’s search features are highly integrated as well, allowing you to search for nearby businesses to navigate to and also displaying the search results that may appear along your route. Simply select your destination and then search for restaurants of gas stations and Google Maps will show all the results that are within a specified radius of your route. Google also showed off the new Home Navigation UI. Once placed into a dock, the Android 2.0 switched over to a more finger friendly layout which works in both landscape and portrait more. The navigation UI gives you easy access to voice Search, Navigation, Contacts, Search, and View Map. I can’t wait to get my hands on Android 2.0 and take the new Google Maps for a ride around the block. Screen shots of the new Google Maps UI and a video demo after the break.

The much anticipated Android 2.0 SDK has just been released. It feels like it was just yesterday that Google unveiled the Android 1.6 SDK, in fact, it’s only been six weeks. Fortunately for developers and Android users, 2.0 packs a much heavier punch. Android 2.0 has quite a few new goodies for developers, but users will mainly notice changes within the phone’s Contacts application and camera. A new framework within the contacts of the phone allows users to sync with multiple contact sources, similar to Web OS does on the Palm Pre. Users will be able to pull in their friends from social networks and merge them with contacts from Outlook of Gmail. The default camera app has been enhanced so that users can better control their images by giving them settings for color effects, white balance, rotation, and focus mode. A few other highlights of Android 2.0 include a slightly tweaked on screen keyboard with better dictionary, multi-touch support, and the ability for Android to launch special applications when the device is placed into a car or desktop docking station. After the break we have pulled together a detailed list of all the new Android 2.0 enhancements along with a short video clip which highlights some of the key points.

At the moment, Android 2.0 seems to be a bit of a sore topic for many. Even before Android 1.6 was released, we started hearing about the 2.0 release, but there’s been a lot of confusion about the development process behind it. At the moment Google appears to be playing favorites, giving Motorola exclusive access to the updates OS which they are planning on launching next week with the Motorola Droid. But some recent new information indicates that HTC is in the Android 2.0 circle of trust as well. GearLog is reporting that HTC has had their hands on the new Android 2.0 update for some time already and have in place already to release it on upcoming Android phones. HTC has not indicated which new handsets will be getting Android 2.0 treatments, but this could be good news for current Hero owners who have been asking for 1.6 for the past month. Since HTC’s Sense is placed on top of their own custom build of Android, it might make sense for them to simply bypass an Android 1.6 ROM upgrade and go straight to 2.0. How many of you would be willing to wait another month or two to get your Hero updated to 2.0 instead of getting a temporary 1.6 fix? Source: GearLog (http://www.gearlog.com/2009/10/htc_working_on_android_20_phon.php)